In his December 31 letter to Messers Barnwell, Adams, and Orr Buchanan recapped the orders given to Anderson by Buell:
"You are carefully to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression; and for that reason you are not, without evident and imminent necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude. But you are to hold possession of the forts in this harbor, and if attacked you are to defend yourself to the last extremity. The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than obey of the three forts, but an attack on or attempt to take possession of either one of them will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar defensive steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act."
Buchanan continues by saying, "Under these circumstances it is clear that Major Anderson acted upon his own responsibility, and without authority, unless, indeed, he had "tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act" on the part of the authorities of South Carolina, which as not yet been alleged..."
In his January 5th letter to Colonel Cooper, the Adjutant General, Major Anderson stated, "The more I reflect upon the matter the stronger are my convictions that I was right in coming here. Whilst we were at Fort Moultrie our safety depended on their forbearance..." The fact of the matter is that while he was in Moultrie, Anderson's force was in danger. He believed, and had every reason to believe, that he had sufficient tangible evidence that hostile designs were planned against him. Nowhere in his orders are instructions to sacrifice his command; exactly the opposite. Anderson's move to Sumter was in keeping with Buchanan's instructions.
Those were not the last orders Anderson received. The ones you cited were the ones Buchanan objected to. From Buell's orders you quote [my red bold underline below]:
... an attack on or attempt to take possession of either one of them will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar defensive steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act.
You and I had a discussion of this when you were posting under your previous handle. I kept asking you where the mob was or the attempt to take possession of Moultrie that might justify Anderson's move if he went by Buell's orders. You never could provide evidence of one.
Charleston officials had promised to stop any mob attacking Fort Moulrie, and they had boats patrolling in the harbor off Fort Moultrie to prevent an approach from the water. Anderson's own officers said that the modifications they had made to Moultrie were sufficient to protect them from a mob, but not an organized army. What soldiers attacked Moultrie?
Here is an excerpt from Buchanan's December 21 revised order to Anderson sent by Floyd:
It is neither expected nor desired that you should expose your own life or that of your men in a hopeless conflict in defense of these forts. If they are invested or attacked by a force so superior that resistance would, in your judgment be a useless waste of life, it will be your duty to yield to necessity and make the best terms in your power.
Anderson was certainly invested, i.e., enclosed or surrounded, by superior forces, although they had not moved against him.
Anderson's move to Sumter also violated another of the tenants of Buell's instructions, to wit:
You are carefully to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression; and for that treason you are not, without evident and imminent necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude.
Anderson's move was certainly construed as hostile, as the report from the Charleston Courier I provided above indicates. His move stopped negotiations between the South Carolinians and Buchanan and led eventually to open conflict.